


Do You Like Magic?

by Starlithorizon



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Character(s) of Color, Fluff, Gen, Horses, M/M, Magic Tricks, Mentions of Blood, Mentions of Violence, kevin is a cutie, mentions of gore
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-02
Updated: 2014-03-12
Packaged: 2018-01-14 06:03:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1255588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starlithorizon/pseuds/Starlithorizon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kevin is a happy citizen of Desert Bluffs who is fond of close-up magic, his beautiful town, and making friends. Juan is the new head of StrexCorp R&D and is absolutely smitten with that dorky radio host.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Welcome to Desert Bluffs

**Author's Note:**

> So this came about through a series of ridiculous things with the ever-lovely [mysticwaffles](http://mysticwaffles.tumblr.com/). If things get really absurd, though, just roll with it because I am so attached to this dweeby little Kevin.  
> UPDATE: Okay, so being attached to a dweeby little Kevin doesn't negate the fact that he really doesn't correlate with my view of Kevin anymore. So this fic is going to be abandoned. I would be happy to write some fluff about Kevin and Juan before Kevin became, you know, completely evil, but I won't do so after. Sorry! If you enjoyed this nerd as much as I did, then I'm extra sorry! These things happen.  
> Also, of course he's inspired by Richard Ayoade. Don't be silly.

Humming a jaunty tune, Kevin buckled down the flap of his messenger bag, adjusted his glasses, and got on his bike. The sun was sitting high in the sky, warming his dark skin and pressing freckles like blessings beneath the thin layer of gore. It was a lovely day, and the citizens of Desert Bluffs took to the sunny weather with aplomb. There was a cool breeze tempering the sharp heat of the sun, cooling the desert and making Kevin's humming less musical and more contented. Children played hopscotch along the sidewalk, skipping through neat intestine squares. Couples strolled arm-in-arm, smiling and chatting and laughing at each other's jokes. Business executives physically dragged people into places of business with snarls of "Work harder!"

All in all, it was looking to be a _perfect_ day.

When he got to the station, he greeted the security guard at the desk with a bright smile and a little wave. The guard just grunted in response, eyes vacant and very tired. Jared always worked _so_ hard, and while Kevin would have liked to take a moment to improve the fellow's day, there wasn't quite enough time for a magic trick. Maybe next time!

In the break room, a ring of interns sat around the table. There was one free chair, which Kevin took quickly, taking off his helmet and wincing as it briefly got caught on his hair.

"Hey, guys!" he chirped, his helmet clattering against the table when he set it down. His bag made a clamorous rattle as well as he unbuckled it. "Wanna see a magic trick?"

"Oh, uh—"

"Sure, sir! Sounds great!" one intern said. Her cheer was strained, but perhaps she was having a bad day. Kevin wanted to fix that and make her tense smile a little brighter. He rummaged through his bag pulling out a whole strange myriad of things, including a menagerie of small wooden animals. He couldn't remember why he had them, but surely they would serve some purpose eventually. Probably.

"Aha!" he crowed with triumph when he found his deck of cards, the ones with the beautiful horse photo on the back. This was his best trick, if he did say so himself. He pulled the cards from the little box and fanned them out in his hand with a grin. He thrust the fan at the smiling intern, beaming hugely.

"Pick a card!" he insisted. "Any card!"

Some of the interns grimaced at his enthusiasm, but Kevin just chalked it up to an off day. The intern gingerly reached for a card, and Kevin thrummed with excitement. She plucked her card from his hand with uncertainty.

"Do I show you?" she asked.

"No, no, you memorize it, and it back in the deck!" "Okay," she drawled, wearing a small frown. She studied the card and tucked it back amongst its bretheren. He shuffled the deck and tapped the stack against the table with a satisfying _crack_. It was like bones between teeth, that sort of lovely sound. He spread the cards out again and drifted his fingers over them. He closed his eyes, always very aware of the importance of showmanship, and selected what he was sure was the girl's card.

"Is _this_ your card?" he asked, eyes wide and exuberant. She shook her head minutely.

"Um, no," she admitted. He tutted at her when she began to look nervous.

"Well, that's okay, I'll just try again! Is this your card?"

This happened three more times before the intern smiled wanly and said that he had found her card, the two of diamonds.

"That was amazing, sir!" she said, and Kevin wasn't a fool. He knew that it wasn't amazing, but she was kind, and maybe a little afraid of losing the internship. "H-how did you do that?"

He smiled with all of the gentleness he could manage. _He_ wasn't their boss after all. They just helped him out.

"A magician never reveals his secrets," he said with a wink. He checked his phone and got to his feet, clamoring with his helmet and bag and cards. "Looks like it's about show time! Later, guys!"

He clattered down the hall, greeting everyone he saw with a big smile. Once in the booth, he got himself sorted, laying his notes out and setting up the more technical aspects of his show.

"It's important to remember the things that you might forget, unless you were meant to forget them in the first place. Welcome to Desert Bluffs!"

* * *

He got notes about a new man who had come into town, his interns all tittering about it for as long as it didn't interfere with productivity. They included a photo and Kevin nodded curtly, reporting that he had lovely, square features and handsome hair.

This new man was a scientist heading the StrexCorp Research and Development department, and his name was Juan. He had a large, excited smile that ignited a smile from Kevin. He was excited to meet this stranger, this Juan, and maybe make a new friend!

"Until next time, Desert Bluffs," he finally said into the mic, pleased with another good broadcast. "Until next time."


	2. Nice to Meet You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My Carlos is from a suburb of LA called Inglewood, right? Well, imagine how happy I was to learn that there's a suburb at least super near NYC called Englewood. Just imagine it. It was beautiful. SYMMETRY, AWW YEAH.

Though he'd heard the radio host talking about him last night, and though he had _not_ blushed the whole time stop looking at him like that he did _not_ blush, they didn't properly meet until two days later. Juan had seen pictures of the radio host on bus benches, and he seemed cheerful enough. When he saw the other man in Albertson's, though, his first thought was, _Wow, he's really cute._

And wasn't that an apt description? With his wide brown eyes and broad smile, with the freckles dotted over his upturned nose and the bow-tie patterned with little horse shoes, even Juan found himself thinking of the man as adorable. The soft brown of his skin was flushed a bit red, a blush draped over his lovely cheekbones as he smiled and hummed to himself.

"Oh! Hello!" the man crowed when Juan was _definitely not_ looking at him, when he had been looking at the produce the _whole time._ And, once again, Juan absolutely did not blush.

"Hello," he said warily, a bit alarmed that this cute man was actually talking to him. Juan was a grown man who had been in several relationships and wasn't generally that awkward around people he was attracted to, yet here he was, a ridiculous mess who would likely collapse into half-muttered compliments and giggles with just the right provocation.

"I'm Kevin," the cute man said, extending a hand. Juan smiled and hoped it wasn't too giddy.

"I'm Juan," he answered, and Kevin smiled. Everything about him was perfect.

Juan fell in love instantly.

"I gathered," he said with a small laugh. "So how are you liking our wonderful little town?"

Well, it was a weird place. Everyone was so cheerful, and he was _pretty_ sure it was natural. Blood and guts and sinews were scattered everywhere, like decorations or talismans or whatever. For the most part, the weather wasn't awful for a desert, considering the fact that it was June. So far, it was freaky, but it was mostly okay.

"It's wonderful," Juan said, hoping that he sounded more charming than anything. Kevin's grin stretched a little wider, more overeager than warped, and he wanted to laugh at that brightness and catch it all in a vial to keep in his pocket.

"I'm so glad to hear that!" Kevin chirped. He shifted the wright of his basket from one hand to the other, and Juan only just remembered his own basket, the context of their meeting filling in around him.

"Am I keeping you from your shopping?" Juan asked, peering into the other's basket. Simple groceries for what seemed a simple man, including little boxes of Yoo-Hoo. He didn't know anyone over the age of ten who drank it, and it was weirdly endearing. Everything about this man was weird and endearing, from the way he stood a bit on the toes of his worn brogues, to his slightly crooked glasses, it was a very convincing impression of a grown man who basically had no idea what he was doing.

Kevin looked down at his basket, which didn't have much at all, and blushed a little darker.

"Oh, I forgot! I see you're just about done anyway. I'll let you get to it. See you around, Juan!"

"See you around," the scientist said, holding up his free hand in a wave. Kevin headed off in search of, God, cartoon-shaped macaroni or something. Juan finished his shopping and headed to the registers, the strange, sweet man still on his mind.

* * *

"Are you at least enjoying yourself?" his mother asked over the phone that night. Juan had only just finished unpacking his little apartment, high up on the seventeenth floor of one of the many skyscrapers towering in the center of the town.

"Yeah, I think so," Juan said, gently placing the last delicate glass figure on his bookshelf. There were three, each finer than the last, each depicting a lethal virus. They were gifts from his parents, cheerful housewarming presents for their boy so fascinated by disease. No one quite knew how he'd gotten into this vague R&D job with a company no one had ever heard of.

"And do you like your job?" she pressed, so worried that her youngest was unhappy. He was thirty-five and going grey at the temples; he did not need his mom to hold his hand at a new job. This wasn't even his first job, or the first time he'd lived so far from them! He'd worked briefly at a biotech company in Washington state, thousands of miles from their comfortable home in Englewood, New Jersey.

"I do," he told her, all sincerity and maybe excitement. "I have virtually free reign here—I can study whatever I want, whatever I find interesting. It's incredible!"

"So what _are_ you studying then? Is it anything you're allowed to tell me?" she asked with a little laugh. He'd worked at a couple of very hush-hush companies, but he was beginning to understand that none of them had anything on Strex. He only had a vague understanding of what they did as a whole, some trite shit about making the world better, but with the promise of a full lab and staff entirely at his disposal, who cared?

"Um," he began, so eloquently. "Well."

"Let me guess: it's secret?" his mom laughed. He breathed out heavily in relief. Strex was highly secretive about the R&D department, and there were precaution in place that he hadn't even witnessed at government jobs. This was intense, and god if he didn't love it.

"Thanks for understanding," he said, laughing a little nervously.

"Don't worry about it, _mijo_. Here, your pop wants to talk to you now. I love you!" He smiled and fiddled with the swine flu figure. He missed his parents and his brothers, his nieces and nephews and little cousins. He liked it here well enough, but he still missed his family, and only after a few days.

His father came on the phone, and Juan reveled in their love just a little while longer, the setting sun glowing red on his new home.


	3. Now You See It

They saw each other next at a press conference, roughly a week after their first meeting. Juan was affable and charming as he told the reporters about a new and wonderful find that Strex had made, his smile gleaming in the bright lights. Kevin liked that smile, found it infectious and sweet, a bit like that illness that had been going around last month.

"Finally, I'd like to thank you for coming today," Juan said as he wrapped up, eyes meeting Kevin's, smile curving just a tiny little bit more. Kevin grinned in response before putting his notebook and recorder into his bag. He held onto his pen, though, and fished a quarter out of his wallet, sliding it into his pants pocket as he stood up. Juan wove through the crowd, shaking hands and stopping briefly to respond to anyone who spoke to him, but his eyes were mainly on Kevin, and that was... It was nice. It was really nice.

"Mr. Barret!" someone called, a vaguely familiar voice. It was a young woman, willowy and grinning, a flower behind one ear and a pen behind the other. If he recalled correctly, she was one of the new interns. He'd seen her at the station once, on the way out as he came in, likely on her way to class or her other job or something.

"Yeah, hi!" he chirped, smiling at her kindly. If she was an intern, she was _probably_ intimidated. Her smile was easy and genuine, though, calm and a bit eager. She was different from the others, less placating, more honest.

"I was wondering if I could maybe see any notes you took today? To see a real journalist's notes?" she asked. He positively beamed.

"Yeah, of course! How long have you been interested in journalism? You're an intern at the station, right?"

"I am," she said. "And I've wanted to get into broadcasting for years. Everything about it is so interesting!"

"It really is!" he enthused, handing over his notebook after a brief moment of fumbling through his bag. At that moment, Juan finally sidled up to them, eyes bright.

"Hello, Kevin," he said warmly, and goodness, Kevin felt like he could just sing with all this happiness, surrounded as he was by lovely people.

"Hi, Juan!"

"How are you?"

"I'm great, thanks! How are you?"

"I'm good."

They dropped into a lull, that little dip always carved into place by small talk, and Kevin pushed his hands into his pockets, looking for a way to make it better. He felt the quarter against his fingertips and bounced a little on the balls of his feet.

"Want to see a magic trick?" he asked. Juan looked close to laughing, clearly unsure how to answer a question like that at a press junket. Well, _after_ a press junket. Either way, it was _always_ a good time for a magic trick!

"Um, okay?" Juan said, voice tilting up in a bit of uncertainty. Kevin wanted to pat Juan's arm, tell him that he was okay, to be look a little less flustered, but he didn't want to invade Juan's space or do anything that might possibly make him uncomfortable. He just smiled bigger and pulled the coin from his pocket. He held his hand out, palm up, quarter a disc of brightness in the center.

"This is a perfectly average coin," he promised Juan. He saw the intern look up in the corner of his eye, and he felt the need to make this a show, an _experience_ , now that he had an audience. He moved his hands around, pretended to shift the coin from one hand to the other, kept it tucked in his palm as he showed the other empty hand with a flourish. He had disappeared the coin, and he saw laughter shining in Juan's eyes. Clearly he was amazed, and really, Kevin couldn't blame him. It _was_ an amazing trick!

"A magic trick is no good if you can't bring things back, though," Kevin said cheerfully, the coin warm and hidden in his palm. He reached out to pretend to pull the coin from Juan's ear, sliding the coin forward in his hand with maybe a _little_ too much force. He may have accidentally ended up kind of throwing the quarter at Juan. Maybe.

It bounced on the scientist's forehead with an alarmingly solid _thwack_. Kevin's hands flew up to his mouth, eyes wide, face hot.

"Oh! Oh no, I'm so sorry!" he cried from behind his hands, peering at the blooming redness on Juan's skin. "I didn't mean to do that, I just meant to finish the trick, and I am _so_ sorry!"

Juan looked uncertain, like he wasn't entirely sure how to respond. Carefully, he bent down and retrieved the coin from where it had fallen after Kevin had launched it at him so gracelessly. He took one of Kevin's hands and gently pulled it away from his mouth. His grip was loose but insistent as he held the hand out, palm up, and placed the quarter in the curving dip, closing his fingers over it and patting them gently.

"I'm fine," he promised as he released Kevin's hand. He had returned the coin with so much hesitation, acting slowly to give Kevin time to pull away if he wanted. That was nice too. So was the little smile that followed his words. "I've had worse."

"It was really great when you made it disappear, though!" the intern added brightly, all honesty. She wasn't just sucking up to someone she thought was her boss; she was admiring the part of the trick that had gone well.

"Thank you, er..."

"Vanessa."

"Right. Thanks, Vanessa. And again, I'm so sorry, Juan!"

"It's fine, it really is. I've, uh, I've never participated so directly in a magic trick before."

And here he laughed, and it was a little like clouded sunshine, bright but hesitant, like he was afraid that his light might burn someone. Though it was unprofessional, probably, Kevin really, really liked that laugh. He wanted to hear it without the cloud cover.

"I promise they don't usually end with me throwing things at people," he said quickly. "I can show you another, if you want!"

"Is this how you make friends? With magic tricks?"

"Well, yeah. They're cool, don't you think?"

"They're interesting."

That was a smirk now, and Kevin blushed even more. He hadn't even thought that was possible. Eventually, Juan had to go back to work, Vanessa had errands to do, and Kevin had to get home and start working on the show for the next day. Everyone disbanded, with new knowledge and a _bit_ of a welt and veins filled with warmth that was more than just blood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing this scene was fun, let me tell you.  
> Researching for this scene was interesting.  
> I now know, like, three different magic tricks. I'm never going to use them, though. Ever. Just no. I'll save the cool factor for Kevin.


End file.
